Phillips. — On the Volcanoes of the Pacific. -537 



the west side of the harbour, where he found three places 

 from whence smoke of a sulphurous smell issued through 

 cracks or fissures in the earth. The ground about these was 

 exceedingly hot and parched or burnt, and they seemed to 

 keep pace with the volcano, for at every explosion of the 

 latter the quantity of smoke or steam in these was greatly 

 increased, and forced out so as to rise in small columns, which 

 we saw from the ship, and had taken for common fires made 

 by the natives. A thermometer placed in a little hole made 

 in one of them rose from 80° — at which it stood in the open 

 air — to 170°. Several other parts of the bill emitted smoke 

 or steam all the day, and the volcano was unusually furious, 

 insomuch that the air was loaded with its ashes. The rain 

 which fell at this time was a compound of water, sand, and 

 earth ; so that it properly might be called showers of mire. 

 Whichever way the wind was, we were plagued with the 

 ashes ; unless it blew very strong indeed from the opposite 

 direction." 



The longitude of Tanna is 169° 20' E., and the latitude 

 19° 30' S. In August, 1840, the Eev. J. Turner visited the 

 New Hebrides, but was driven away by the natives. That 

 missionary shortly afterwards sent a report to the directors of 

 the London Missionary Society, which contains the following 

 reference : — 



" Port Eesolution (named by Cook after his own vessel), or 

 Nea, Tanna, opens to the north, and is formed by a neck of 

 low land on the east side, abounding in pumice-stone and 

 other volcanic matter, and on the west by a mountain 500 ft. 

 above the level of the sea. The interior of the mountain is a 

 vast furnace, and in some places the crust is so thin that on 

 passing over it it is like walking on a hot iron plate. Near 

 the top of this mountain there is a barren spot, with fissures 

 here and there, from which volumes of steam burst up now 

 and then, and also sulphurous vapours. The greater part of 

 the mountain, however, is covered with vegetation, and is in- 

 habited by a population of some five hundred people, scattered 

 about in several villages. They have not the slightest appre- 

 hension of danger, and have their settlements so arranged as 

 to throw some of the hot places into their Marum, or forum, for 

 public meetings, in the very centre of the village There they 

 lounge and enjoy themselves, on a cold day, from the under- 

 ground heat, and there, too, they have their night dances. 

 Around the base of this mountain, and among the rocks on 

 the west side of the harbour, there are sevei-al hot springs, 

 which are of great service to the natives. Their degrees of 

 heat vary. Some form a pleasant tepid bath, and to these 

 the sick resort, especially those suffermg from ulcerous sores. 

 Some rise to 190°, and others bubble up about the boiling- 



